The Progressives

By the early 1900s, many Americans had left rural areas and moved to cities
to take jobs in factories and offices. Although workers often lived in miserable
conditions, city life attracted many newcomers because of an alluring consumer
culture and new freedoms for young adults. Activist citizens started reform
movements that worked for public education, labor rights, women's rights, the
safety of the nation's food supply, and the conservation of natural resources—even though some of these movements often conflicted each other.

Themes

A growing industrial labor market drew people to cities from
elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad. Manufacturing and advertising created
a new consumerism, and young people in particular more freedom by
weakening the controls over personal behavior previously exercised by
families and small communities. More

The increasing damage created by a burgeoning
commercial and industrial economy had many convinced that only
government regulations could protect the public. More

Progressive era reforms often worked at odds to each
other, resulting in both more democratic and anti-democratic social and
political structures. More